Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Jurgen Klinsmann did a good job at making Americans believe that there was a deep pool of US eligible players of which to pull. When he started he had players like Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Mix Diskerud and Tim Howard still playing in top leagues.

The key phrase there is "when he started." That all changed in the lead up to the 2014 World Cup when MLS, almost as a response to Klinsmann's urging of players to go to Europe, brought them all back. In the back of our collective minds, many of us thought that there would be other players to back fill the work that those players were doing at the highest levels. There always had been. Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride, Frankie Hejduk, Ernie Stewart, Brad Friedel and Crew SC's own Gregg Berhalter (to name a few). There was a pipeline there, so to speak.

Because of that pipeline, the US had a decent height to the ceiling. Meaning, it was widely regarded that players training and pushing in better leagues are, well, better players. That has changed, however. The events by MLS/SUM starting in 2013 to bring back players is turning out to have a titanic impact on US players in Europe.

The table below is a quick overview of who the US currently has playing in leagues scattered across the pond. Since I am not close to most of these leagues outside of the EPL (and to a smaller degree, Bundesliga) I decided to whip up a quick point system based on the header categories below.

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Points >>

3

2

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

Pts

Player

League

Club

Age, Position

Mins

% Pos Mins

G

A

MotM

Rating

9

Bobby Wood

Bundesliga

Hamburger SV

24, FW

267

99%

1

1

7.07

9

Christian Pulisic

Bundesliga

Borussia Dortmund

18, M(CLR)

266

99%

1

1

7.50

8

Timothy Chandler

Bundesliga

Eintracht Frankfurt

27, D(R),M(R)

270

100%

1

7.20

8

Mix Diskerud

Sweden

IFK Göteborg

26, M(CR)

1871

94%

3

3

3

7.00

7

Brendan Hines Ike

Sweden

Örebro

22, D(C)

1890

95%

1

1

6.84

6

Geoff Cameron

EPL

Stoke City

32, D(CLR),DMC

295

82%

6.00

5

Tim Ream

Champ

Fulham

29, D(CL),DMC

540

100%

6.71

5

Josh Wicks

Sweden

Sirius

33, GK

1980

100%

2

6.00

5

Alfredo Morales

Bundesliga II

Ingolstadt

27, M(C)

270

60%

7.00

4

Jerome Kiesewetter

Bundesliga II

Fortuna Düsseldorf

24, AM(R)

164

36%

6.92

4

Lynden Gooch

EPL

Sunderland

21, Forward

63

18%

6.11

4

Danny Williams

EPL

Huddersfield Town

28, M(C)

62

17%

6.20

4

Weston McKennie

Bundesliga

Schalke 04

19, Midfielder

25

9%

6.00

4

Andrew Wooten

Bundesliga II

Sandhausen

27, AM(R),FW

30

7%

1

7.21

4

Fabian Johnson

Bundesliga

Borussia M'gladbach

29, D(LR),M(CLR)

10

4%

5.00

4

Aron Jóhannsson

Bundesliga

Werder Bremen

26, FW

3

1%

5.00

3

Matt Miazga

Eredivisie

Vitesse

22, D(C)

150

42%

6.00

3

Romain Gall

Sweden

GIF Sundsvall

22, Midfielder

803

41%

6.00

3

Alex Horwath

Norway

Brann

30, GK

360

19%

6.80

3

E. Hyndman

EPL

AFC Bournemouth

0

0%

3

K. Scott

EPL

Chelsea

0

0%

3

D. Yedlin

EPL

Newcastle United

0

0%

3

C. Carter Vickers

EPL

Sheffield United

0

0%

3

B. Scott

Bundesliga

Köln

0

0%

3

C. Stanko

Bundesliga

Freiburg

0

0%

3

J. Brooks

Bundesliga

Wolfsburg

0

0%

2

Julian Green

Bundesliga II

Greuther Fürth

22, AM(L)

90

20%

6.4

2

Terrence Boyd

Bundesliga II

Darmstadt 98

26, FW

59

13%

6

2

Eric Lichaj

Champ

Nottingham Forest

28, D(LR),M(LR)

13

2%

6.11

2

Rubio Rubin

Norway

Stabæk

21, AM(C),FW

1

0%

6

1

H. Wright

Bundesliga II

Sandhausen

0

0%

1

S. Antonijevic

Norway

Lillestrøm

0

0%

1

J. Klinsmann

Germany

Hertha BSC

0

0%

1

D. Payne

Eredivisie

Excelsior

0

0%

1

S. O'Neill

Eredivisie

Excelsior

0

0%

1

L. de la Torre

Champ

Fulham

0

0%

1

M. Corboz

Bundesliga II

MSV Duisburg

0

0%

1

M. Gaines

Bundesliga II

Darmstadt 98

0

0%

Once you get past Bobby Wood and Christian Pulisic there is a bit of a drop-off. That isn't to minimize their impact because it has been great. Without them, the US might likely not be qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

Speaking of qualification for the World Cup. Below is a list of current US players who rank in the top 50 in MLS right now.

Rank

Player

Team, Age, Position

Mins

Goals

Assists

MotM

Rating

6

Lee Nguyen

New England Rev, 30, AM(CLR),FW

2124

9

8

3

7.43

7

Cristian Roldan

Seattle Sounders FC, 22, M(CR)

2340

6

2

4

7.43

11

Graham Zusi

Sporting Kansas City, 31, D(R),M(CLR)

1665

0

5

1

7.33

22

Sacha Kljestan

New York Red Bulls, 32, M(C)

2196

2

7

4

7.19

24

Jozy Altidore

Toronto FC, 27, FW

1932

13

5

2

7.18

25

CJ Sapong

Philadelphia Union, 28, AM(LR),FW

2263

13

4

4

7.18

26

Benny Feilhaber

Sporting Kansas City, 32, AM(C)

2013

5

1

2

7.16

27

Kelyn Rowe

New England Rev, 25, D(L),M(CLR)

1895

0

6

0

7.15

28

Dax McCarty

Chicago Fire, 30, DMC

1961

0

4

0

7.13

31

Clint Dempsey

Seattle Sounders FC, 34, M(CL),FW

1769

11

3

3

7.11

33

Justin Morrow

Toronto FC, 29, D(CLR),M(L)

1954

5

1

3

7.11

37

Matt Polster

Chicago Fire, 24, D(R),DMC

1277

1

4

0

7.09

38

Darlington Nagbe

Portland Timbers, 27, M(CLR)

1913

3

2

0

7.09

40

Sheanon Williams

Vancouver Whitecaps, 27, D(CLR)

1260

0

2

0

7.08

42

Ben Sweat

New York City FC, 26, D(L)

1718

1

6

1

7.07

47

Ike Opara

Sporting Kansas City, 28, D(C)

2070

2

0

3

7.05

After calling players in Europe the ceiling, I'm calling players in MLS the floor. This isn't to say MLS is poor. The league is fine (though, still second best to Liga MX in the region. I did not look players there as I used WhoScored data to filter through players).

Between these two lists, you can piece together a group of familiar names, but not great players. Both MLS and Europe are not providing what the US needs. Perhaps it will be Liga MX that produces what it needs - but Bruce Arena has made it clear that MLS based players is what he wants.